Earth Policy Institute: Podcast

While on a brief assignment for the
USDA in India in 1965, Lester Brown pieced together the early clues
of an impending famine. His urgent warning to the U.S. and Indian
governments set in motion the largest food rescue effort in
history, saving millions of lives.

Moving the global economy off its current decline-and-collapse
path depends on reaching four goals: stabilizing climate,
stabilizing population, eradicating poverty, and restoring the
economy's natural support systems. These goals are mutually
dependent. All are essential to feeding the world's people. It is
unlikely...

Our natural systems are the foundation of our economy. We can
roughly estimate how much it will cost to reforest the earth,
protect topsoil, restore rangelands and fisheries, stabilize water
tables, and protect biological diversity. The goal is not to offer
a set of precise numbers but rather to provide a set of...

Many countries are facing dangerous water shortages. As world
demand for food has soared, millions of farmers have drilled too
many irrigation wells in efforts to expand their harvests. As a
result, water tables are falling and wells are going dry in some 20
countries containing half the world’s people. The...